Was supposed to be the Whitby Fall Regatta today (3 races), but the weather was NASTY for around the cans racing. Winds were to be 15-20 knots with gusts to 40 from the NNW, and major rain.
Race comittee decided to run the medium distance race: Ajax weather buoy, FBYC mark 7, and back to Whitby. They would run the fall regattta tomorrow.
I took some time at the dock to double reef the old main, as I haven't hoisted that sail in a while.
Also hoisted the #3 jib, as I was single handed.
At the start, there was only about 5 knots of breeze out there. Only two boats in my division: the other was the Catalina 25 Iris. We were both over early, and had to double back. It took me about 10 minutes to get re-started. Grrrr! Too bad, would have been a great start. I watched all the spinnaker boats hoist spinnackers at the start, and here I was with a double reef and small jib.
On the way back to the start, I dropped the #3 and hoisted the heavy #1. I got through the start going along really well, and I see all the spinnaker boats broaching all over the place, while all the whitesail boats are heeled over 45 degrees. Winds had picked right up! WAY UP!!!
I had WAY too much head sail up, but didn't dare go foreward single handed to do a swap back. There was too much wind and waves to use the autohelm. I was able to feather the tiller, and head up past close hauled in the puffs to keep the boat in its feet.
I was staying with a CS30 owned by Mark Ashworth, when I saw them fall off the wind and furl in their headsail quickly. Actually, they started coming towards me. I was on a starboard tack, but started to duck the as they were crossing my bow. They had lost steerage, and were out of control scrambling to get the emergency tiller hooked up. I guess it was another Mark I had to round!
Rounded the Ajax weather buoy, and tacked to 4 to 5 ft waves, and much more breeze. There were scallops on the head sail: the halyard needed to be tensioned. I ran the haylard down to the windward primary winch and as I pulled it in, the turning block pulled out of the deck, making the scallops worst. I tried to heave too, but there was too much pressure on the sail to tension the halyard. I really need to get the cabintop winches installed, and better turning blocks.
Going towards the FBYC mark 7, it rained really hard, and wind picked up further.
It was a lot of work to keep the boat from rounding up.
Rounded the FBYC mark, and the winds died a lot, probably down to 8 knots. Thinking the winds wouldy would build again, I poled out wing on wing using the spinnaker pole, as the whisker pole would have snapped.
The winds started building again, and I did not go below 7 knots the entire way back to Whitby. At one point I hit 10.4 knots surfing a wave. Finshed the race doing 9.5 knots!
This fast downwind leg was good enough for me to win my division.
We had a great BBQ with free Mount Gay Rum.
Trip Odometer: 22.90 miles
Moving Avg: 5.5 knots
Moving Time: 04:08:00
Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2012/20120908.kmz
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